In response to a topic I recently replied to, I thought it would be good to explain my costings on projects.

I always quote clients unless they want to pay me by my hourly rate. My reason for quoting is that sometimes I can complete a project very quickly and offer the client a discount, which looks really good to a client If I go over time in the project I have to carry the costs, which reduces my profit.

Over the period of a year I always make a good profit. Bigger clients always want quotes, then they want the quotes broken down to hourly costings. This is easy to do after a couple of years of project work, but can take time at the beginning. So if you are just starting I suggest you begin with charging by hourly rates.

Now onto pricing and working out your hourly rates.

I charge out at $100/hour which is fairly standard in my country ($65 US/hr). A 5 page site may take me 3-4 weeks or longer to complete, depending on a lot of factors. Therefore 3-4 weeks at 40 hours/week x $100 = $12000-$16000. I tend to adjust my pricing per client too, if it is pure business client they pay full price, if it is a school/personal site then they get reduced pricing. I may look expensive to some, but I value my time properly.

My prices also take into account days where I may be sick and cannot work, or holidays I wish to take and won't be paid for etc, or just downturns in business.

I can afford to hire a couple of freelancers, if need be, on bigger projects, and still get $20/hour of profit. If I do the entire job myself I get $70 hour for myself

Now you may be able to eliminate a lot of these costs such as overheads, office space, software etc, it's up to you. But everything you have purchased for this business is a cost. If you don't consider these costs then you are paying for them out of your own pocket. No business pays for these sorts of costs from their own pocket. The business pays for them!

Here is a scenario:

If you are selling a template for $25 and it took you 6 hours to make it then your time is worth $4.16/hour. Broken down that equates to:

If you are a youngster it is all profit, because you don't pay for equipment, software, office space or overheads. But your hourly rate is still only $4.16/hour.

If you sell your template for even less, you are lowering the industry value even more.

I know that pricing is relative to age but please consider your futures. If you continue with the trends you will lower the whole industries value. It will in turn mean that you will devalue your future income by what you are doing today. I know some of you just want to make a quick buck to buy a new PSP game, or an iPod etc, but please think of the consequences.

If you are a late teen then you should be considering charging near full prices, something in the $50-$75+ bracket, commensurate with experience etc.

Now if you have managed to sell the template for $250 then everything looks slightly better:

If I do the job entirely by myself I can consider dropping the profit margin to $5/hour. I can also consider dropping overheads costs such as phone calls and printing if I don't use them...maybe $2/hour. If my equipment is new and modern and software up to date I could reduce or drop this cost to $2/hour or so. Maybe reducing the whole job to $69-$70/hour or less in some cases. So a 6 hour project could be charged at $390 or so, instead of $600.

In all be flexible, don't price yourself so low you will lower the whole industry, and remember you are charging for more than just your time.